As Apple employees adjust to working from home, they discover that slow home network speeds and confusing security restrictions are impacting their ability to work effectively.
The COVID-19 disease is caused by a coronavirus
Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees on March 6th to work from home as necessary to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Now, a week later, those employees and developers that are able to work from home are feeling the strain of doing so.
Complaints to staffers include slow download speeds impacting workflows and still-changing rules surrounding secrecy and what work can actually be performed remotely. Apple's own internal networking and infrastructure is built to keep outsiders from breaking in, and this seems to include Apple employees as well.
As Apple adjusts its security guidelines, some employees still show up to the office to work. They have no other choice but to do so, since hardware cannot be removed from campus if it has not been released.
In a wide-ranging article that covers the state of all remote work in Silicon Valley, the Wall Street Journal asked some employees about their work conditions.
One Apple employee remarked, "It's all about lowering the density." Meaning that having less employees in a central location, like Apple Park, still matters during the outbreak.
Apple is conducting daily health screenings at the security desk. All of these efforts combined with the recent closure of all Apple Stores outside of China are a result of responding to CDC recommendations in fighting the spread of coronavirus.